Kiln to Kitchen

Favorite Recipes from Beloved North Carolina Potters

By Jean Anderson

Photographs by Lissa Gotwals

192 pp., 8 x 10, 24 color plates., 3 maps, index, 76 recipes total

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4696-4945-0
    Published: September 2019
  • E-book EPUB ISBN: 978-1-4696-4946-7
    Published: August 2019
  • E-book PDF ISBN: 979-8-8908-5352-3
    Published: August 2019

Buy this Book

To purchase online via an independent bookstore, visit Bookshop.org
Jean Anderson’s new cookbook deliciously brings together two of her lifelong passions—great food and North Carolina pottery. Fans of both will celebrate. While always meant for one another, pottery and cooking are enjoying a new romance—many potters have introduced designs, glazes, and techniques that make pottery more versatile, while others continue making the traditional pie plates, casseroles, jugs, and mugs that made the state’s pottery famous. Potters now routinely tuck recipes into everything from stoneware angel-food cake pans to salt-glazed bean pots, and Anderson has selected a treasury of 76 favorite recipes contributed by the twenty-four gifted North Carolina potters featured in this book.

Following an introduction to the North Carolina pottery traditions and general instructions for cooking in clay, Anderson sets off on three tours, pinpointed on maps, that wind through the state’s prime pottery regions—the Greater Triangle, Seagrove-Asheboro, and the Catawba Valley/Mountains. She profiles the featured potters, sharing their captivating backstories and favorite, fully tested recipes. How about trying Ben Owen’s persimmon pudding, Mark Hewitt’s South African beef bobotie, or Siglinda Scarpa's Italian fruit tart, to name just a few of the dishes that span the South and the globe. Beautiful photographs of recipes in their clay vessels will urge you to dig in.

About the Author

Jean Anderson, winner of six best-cookbook awards and a member of the James Beard Cookbook Hall of Fame, is the author of more than a dozen cookbooks, most recently Crisps, Cobblers, Custards & Creams. After many years working in the New York City publishing world, she came home to North Carolina, bought an old house, and filled it with cookbooks and pottery.
For more information about Jean Anderson, visit the Author Page.

Reviews

"A terrific introduction to Southern pottery traditions and insights into the nuances of cooking in pottery."--Flavors

"In this down-to-earth cookbook, Jean Anderson explores the vital connection between pottery and culinary perfection."--American Craft

“During my visits with Jean to North Carolina potteries, I bought several pieces of pottery but never focused on all their possible uses until I read this book. I knew about pie, of course, cornbread, and beans. But kimchee? Baked chicken? Layered ratatouille? Turns out potters are creative not only in shaping clay but also in preparing dinner. These are the kinds of recipes that resonate with me because they are tasty, old-fashioned, and made from scratch.”--Sara Moulton, host of Sara’s Weeknight Meals from American Public Television

“Jean Anderson's lovely book connects the traditions and heritage of North Carolina pottery with food -- a terrific concept that will appeal to ceramic art collectors and North Carolina pottery enthusiasts. But it will also appeal to many home cooks, especially those of us who pledge allegiance to the Tarheel State.”-–Elizabeth Sims, author of Tupelo Honey: Southern Spirits and Small Plates

“Jean Anderson’s passion for pottery and cooking leaps from the pages as she bakes North Carolina culture, history, and food into the perfect book. The combination of down-home recipes with adventurous global cuisine offers delicious choices for every kind of cook. I’m a little worried about the deluge of visitors this book will bring to the potters. They’ll have a hard time keeping up with the demand for their goods once readers get this book into their kitchens.”--Moreton Neal, author of Remembering Bill Neal: Favorite Recipes from a Life in Cooking